Rate My Professor Catherine Jutzeler

Prof. Dr. Catherine Jutzeler is an Assistant Professor of Biomedical Data Science in the Department of Health Sciences and Technology at ETH Zurich, a position she has held since January 2022 as part of the ETH Tenure Track and the ETH Rehab Initiative. She leads the Biomedical Data Science Lab, an interdisciplinary team that applies machine learning algorithms and traditional epidemiological methods to prospective and retrospective studies. The lab integrates genetic data, biochemical markers, clinical assessments, medical imaging, and medication histories to identify causes, risk factors, and biomarkers of disease progression. Key research areas include spinal cord injury, lower back pain, infectious diseases such as pediatric and adult sepsis, and neurodegenerative conditions like Alzheimer's disease. Jutzeler's work emphasizes translating data-driven insights into personalized treatment strategies and clinical decision support tools, bridging medicine, data science, and biology.

Prior to her appointment at D-HEST, Jutzeler was a Group Leader at ETH Zurich's Department of Biosystems Science and Engineering in Basel. She completed her PhD at ETH Zurich in the Department of Chemistry and Applied Biosciences, conducted jointly with the University Clinic Balgrist, where her research focused on neuroscience-related topics including sensory processing and spinal cord injury. Following her doctorate, she served as an Honorary Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada, investigating repurposing acute therapies for neurological conditions. Jutzeler holds a BSc and MSc in pharmaceutical sciences. Her contributions have earned over 3,700 citations on Google Scholar, reflecting her impact in pharmaco-epidemiology, neuroimaging, and machine learning applications in health.

She has secured notable funding, including the Swiss National Science Foundation Spark Grants in 2020 for early detection of Alzheimer's disease and repurposing therapies, as well as the Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research Trainee Award during her postdoctoral work. Recent grants support projects like Wings for Life funding for spinal cord injury research. Key publications encompass 'Prediction of segmental motor outcomes in traumatic spinal cord injury: Advances beyond sum scores' (Experimental Neurology, 2024), 'Natural Progression of Routine Laboratory Markers after Traumatic Spinal Cord Injury' (Journal of Neurotrauma, 2021), 'Evaluating deep learning sepsis prediction models in ICUs' (npj Digital Medicine, 2026), and 'Exploring synthetic controls in rare diseases with a proof of concept in spinal cord injury' (BMC Medicine, 2025). Jutzeler also contributes as a tutor for the Master's in Health Sciences and Technology and is affiliated with the Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics.